CABBIES have criticised the council for giving with one hand and taking away with the other following plans to put up both taxi fares for passengers and licence fees for drivers across the borough.

At a licensing committee meeting on Monday, councillors approved plans to increase the fares that hackney carriage drivers are allowed to charge passengers — but licensing fees for hackney and private hire cabbies are set to go up by more than previously agreed.

Following a petition from drivers across the borough, new fares for hackney carriage passengers will automatically come into force by midnight tonight (Wednesday) unless the council receives any objections to the increases by the end of today.

Fares for passengers will go up by roughly 25p for the first mile and 50p for the first mile on public and bank holidays.

However hackney carriage and private hire licensing fees are also set to increase.

Fees for hackney carriage drivers are set to rise by 31% from £112 to £147 for 2008/9 and rise from £138 for private hire drivers to £147.

Vehicle licences, which currently cost £232 for hackney carriages and £238 for private hire, are set to go up to £274 in 2008/9, a rise of 18% and 15% respectively. Operator fees will also rise between £5 and £25 depending on the number of vehicles owned.

The increase will create a projected income of £25,929 for the council.

A public notice outlining the fees is due to be published and the public will have 28 days to register their objections to the council.

If no objections are received by the close of the 28 days, the proposed new fees will come into effect. If any objections are received, they will be considered at a meeting on March 10 and the fees amended if necessary and implemented by April 1.

The proposed increases are more than previously agreed under a three-year plan to narrow the gap between hackney carriage and private hire fees and bring Elmbridge’s fees into line with the rest of Surrey.

The council says the increases will cover the cost of staff restructuring and administration as the licensing function has been transferred to environmental health and licensing division.

Cabbies have blasted the rises and questioned the level of service they receive from the council.

Stephen Knapp from ABBA cars said: “I’d like to know what the licensing department is going to give us for this money. It is an ongoing battle, why should we have to bear the cost of it merging with environmental health?”

Lorenzo Galletta from Walton Taxis said: “It is a large increase, everything is going up and up and up.”

The petition by the hackney drivers also asked the council to consider increasing the number of taxi ranks across the borough, look at the provision of a shelter for drivers and the availability of public toilets for drivers at Walton railway station.

Councillors agreed to look at plans to provide further taxi ranks within the borough at a future meeting but felt no further action should be taken regarding the other issues raised by drivers.